Mercy for Animals recently (a couple of days ago) released video footage from an undercover investigation at the world’s largest egg-laying breed hatchery.The video shows what happens to the unwanted and unusable male chicks who are born (50% of all the chicks are male): they are ground up alive. The sad fact is that the male chicks are simply waste and must be discarded.

Most farms that produce eggs don’t have their own hatcheries, but instead buy from much larger hatcheries that supply them with day-old hens. According to the Canadian Poultry and Egg Producers Council there are 4 hatcheries in BC, and about 50 in Canada (this list includes all poultry hatcheries, not just egg layers). If you buy eggs, the chicken who laid your eggs almost definitely came from one of these hatcheries, all of which kill the male chicks of egg-layer breeds.

It’s unavoidable – eating eggs means killing the male chicks. If you buy eggs at a farmers market ask the farmer what happens to the male chicks. It’s a nasty part of the business that no one talks about.

Many stories have appeared about this investigation. Here’s a list of links if you want to learn more:

• The Des Moines Register
• Gawker
• SFGate
• Change.org
• Vegan Soapbox
• Digging through the Dirt
• KCRG
• The Iowa Independent
• Food Manufacturing

I’m sure there are more, but this is what I’ve come across in the past two days.